- Joined
- Oct 11, 2001
- Messages
- 129
Morning All!
This article was on the front page of the Houston Chronicle today. Here is a link to the article, but I will also include the text of it below, in case they move the page: Houston Chronicle Article
Here is the text from the article:
Nov. 9, 2002, 2:28AM
Texas history goes on auction block
Museum officials have some pointed reactions to a family's
sale of the Bowie knife wielded by Gen. Sam Houston
By JAMES KIMBERLY
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
The old knife with the scratched blade and the cracked
wooden handle stared down the Mexican army at the Battle of
San Jacinto, but a family feud proved too much for it.
The Bowie knife that Gen. Sam Houston carried into the
battle for independence remained a revered artifact in Texas
for 166 years. Now, it is in a vault at Little John's
Auction Service in Orange, Calif., where it will be sold
Sunday to the highest bidder.
Some Texans are not happy about the development. "If there
is one common thread of all people in Texas, it's their
pride in state history. There's just no denying that," said
Tom Wancho, an exhibits planning assistant at the Bob
Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin.
Other curators were more staid but just as adamant in their
reaction to the news.
"I think things that are important to Texas and important to
the heroes of Texas should be available to and enjoyed by
the public," said Mac Woodward, curator at the Sam Houston
Museum in Huntsville.
For 60 years the knife was on public display.
Sam Houston gave it to Solomon Fisher, the 10-year-old son
of his neighbor. The knife was passed from generation to
generation of the Fisher family.
In 1940, the Fisher family lent the knife to the San Jacinto
Museum of History in La Porte, where it stayed until it went
on display at the Bob Bullock Museum when it opened last
year.
Today, there are four descendants of Solomon Fisher, some in
the Houston area, some elsewhere.
A descendent who asked not to be identified because "a lot
of people are upset about (the knife) being taken from
Texas" said the family put it up for sale because they
didn't know what to do with it.
The heirs knew they owned some items on display at the San
Jacinto Museum, but they never thought much about them until
they were contacted by curators two years ago.
The museum was cataloguing its collection and wanted to
clarify the agreements it had with artifact owners, said
museum President George Donnelly.
"We asked them, `What's your pleasure? Do you want to donate
it to us? Do you want to keep it on loan? Do you want us to
return it?' " Donnelly said.
The Fisher family couldn't decide.
"I think it was just too many of us to decide what to do
with it," the woman said.
So they chose to sell it and let someone else worry about
where it should go.
For what it's worth, the Fisher family member said she hopes
"it comes back to Texas."
There is some precedent for that.
When a portrait of Jim Bowie, whose name is forever linked
with the big, rough-hewn knives used on the frontier, went
up for sale at a California auction last year, the Texas
Historical Commission and the State Preservation Board got
together and paid $321,875 for it. The painting is on
display in the Capitol.
Auctioneer John Gangel, owner of Little John's, said there
is a lot of interest in the knife, including from some
museums and collectors. Gangel expects the knife to sell for
between $25,000 and $75,000, but bidding could drive the
price higher, he said.
Museum curators are hoping the high bidder has ties to
Texas.
Wancho said the Bob Bullock Museum frequently receives
telephone calls from Texans with significant artifacts who
offer to lend them to the museum.
"We've actually got some objects on display right now that
came from people who visited the museum and who called,"
Wancho said. "There are real serious collectors who don't
want to share, but there are also people who have had things
passed down from generation to generation."
Gangel said Bowie knife collectors also are interested in
the knife.
The old knife certainly has character. It is huge, 20 inches
long with a blade that is 13.5 inches long and more than 2
inches across. It is so big that museums called it a short
sword, an inaccurate description, Gangel said.
"It's the kind of knife Texicans would have carried," Gangel
said. "He wouldn't have had a frilly knife made in England.
He wasn't going to spend what would've been three months pay
at that time when virtually every blacksmith could make a
knife."
Woodward of the Sam Houston Museum said the knife is a
significant piece of Texas history.
"I think Sam Houston still stands as the most important
figure in Texas history," he said.
Sam Houston IV of Huntsville, the general's great-grandson,
said he, too, would like to see the knife displayed in a
museum. He has donated his artifacts, including one of Sam
Houston's famous walking canes, to the Sam Houston Museum.
Still, Houston doesn't begrudge the decision to sell the
knife.
"We're a country where we can buy and sell things. That's
the great thing about our country. (The sale) is just one of
those things that happens," he said.
--gordon
This article was on the front page of the Houston Chronicle today. Here is a link to the article, but I will also include the text of it below, in case they move the page: Houston Chronicle Article
Here is the text from the article:
Nov. 9, 2002, 2:28AM
Texas history goes on auction block
Museum officials have some pointed reactions to a family's
sale of the Bowie knife wielded by Gen. Sam Houston
By JAMES KIMBERLY
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
The old knife with the scratched blade and the cracked
wooden handle stared down the Mexican army at the Battle of
San Jacinto, but a family feud proved too much for it.
The Bowie knife that Gen. Sam Houston carried into the
battle for independence remained a revered artifact in Texas
for 166 years. Now, it is in a vault at Little John's
Auction Service in Orange, Calif., where it will be sold
Sunday to the highest bidder.
Some Texans are not happy about the development. "If there
is one common thread of all people in Texas, it's their
pride in state history. There's just no denying that," said
Tom Wancho, an exhibits planning assistant at the Bob
Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin.
Other curators were more staid but just as adamant in their
reaction to the news.
"I think things that are important to Texas and important to
the heroes of Texas should be available to and enjoyed by
the public," said Mac Woodward, curator at the Sam Houston
Museum in Huntsville.
For 60 years the knife was on public display.
Sam Houston gave it to Solomon Fisher, the 10-year-old son
of his neighbor. The knife was passed from generation to
generation of the Fisher family.
In 1940, the Fisher family lent the knife to the San Jacinto
Museum of History in La Porte, where it stayed until it went
on display at the Bob Bullock Museum when it opened last
year.
Today, there are four descendants of Solomon Fisher, some in
the Houston area, some elsewhere.
A descendent who asked not to be identified because "a lot
of people are upset about (the knife) being taken from
Texas" said the family put it up for sale because they
didn't know what to do with it.
The heirs knew they owned some items on display at the San
Jacinto Museum, but they never thought much about them until
they were contacted by curators two years ago.
The museum was cataloguing its collection and wanted to
clarify the agreements it had with artifact owners, said
museum President George Donnelly.
"We asked them, `What's your pleasure? Do you want to donate
it to us? Do you want to keep it on loan? Do you want us to
return it?' " Donnelly said.
The Fisher family couldn't decide.
"I think it was just too many of us to decide what to do
with it," the woman said.
So they chose to sell it and let someone else worry about
where it should go.
For what it's worth, the Fisher family member said she hopes
"it comes back to Texas."
There is some precedent for that.
When a portrait of Jim Bowie, whose name is forever linked
with the big, rough-hewn knives used on the frontier, went
up for sale at a California auction last year, the Texas
Historical Commission and the State Preservation Board got
together and paid $321,875 for it. The painting is on
display in the Capitol.
Auctioneer John Gangel, owner of Little John's, said there
is a lot of interest in the knife, including from some
museums and collectors. Gangel expects the knife to sell for
between $25,000 and $75,000, but bidding could drive the
price higher, he said.
Museum curators are hoping the high bidder has ties to
Texas.
Wancho said the Bob Bullock Museum frequently receives
telephone calls from Texans with significant artifacts who
offer to lend them to the museum.
"We've actually got some objects on display right now that
came from people who visited the museum and who called,"
Wancho said. "There are real serious collectors who don't
want to share, but there are also people who have had things
passed down from generation to generation."
Gangel said Bowie knife collectors also are interested in
the knife.
The old knife certainly has character. It is huge, 20 inches
long with a blade that is 13.5 inches long and more than 2
inches across. It is so big that museums called it a short
sword, an inaccurate description, Gangel said.
"It's the kind of knife Texicans would have carried," Gangel
said. "He wouldn't have had a frilly knife made in England.
He wasn't going to spend what would've been three months pay
at that time when virtually every blacksmith could make a
knife."
Woodward of the Sam Houston Museum said the knife is a
significant piece of Texas history.
"I think Sam Houston still stands as the most important
figure in Texas history," he said.
Sam Houston IV of Huntsville, the general's great-grandson,
said he, too, would like to see the knife displayed in a
museum. He has donated his artifacts, including one of Sam
Houston's famous walking canes, to the Sam Houston Museum.
Still, Houston doesn't begrudge the decision to sell the
knife.
"We're a country where we can buy and sell things. That's
the great thing about our country. (The sale) is just one of
those things that happens," he said.
--gordon
